The early morning. The red onion dyed eggs. Watching your basket from the Polish church pews as it is blessed, you see the best part of every Easter breakfast peeking out: babka. This sweet, round bread pairs perfectly with the traditional hard-boiled eggs and kielbasa, and makes a classic backdrop for your little Easter lamb.
We could expect to her to say “not bad, needs salt” every time that Babcia tried food that we made (even if we followed her instructions). – Meagan
This recipe is a combination of ones found online. I tried to make it according to how others described Babcia’s babka. If you have any changes to suggest, let us know in the comment section below, and take pictures!
Easter Babka
Supplied by: the Molloys
Yields: babka
Ingredients
Dough:
1 cup milk (or almond milk)
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp)
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp lukewarm water
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
15 large room-temperature egg yolks (it sounds like a lot, but they add so much flavour! Use the whites for an angel food cake.)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp limoncello or orange liqueur (optional)
1/2 cup melted butter (definitely go with real butter!)
3/4 cup zest of lemon and orange (about 1 large lemon and 1/2 a large orange zested)
1/2 cup chopped almonds (optional)
1/3 cup light or dark raisins (optional)
Glaze:
10 tbsp icing sugar (use more if you like a thicker, more visible glaze)
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp limoncello (or use more lemon juice)
1 tbsp water
Directions
1. Place the yeast in a small bowl with the lukewarm water. Stir and rest until combined, about 5 minutes. Add 1 tbsp of sugar, rest 5 minutes.
2. Scald the milk then combine with 3/4 cup of flour using a wooden spoon or standing mixer with the paddle attachment. Allow it to cool. Once cooled, combine well with yeast mixture. Cover and rest until doubled in size.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks and salt for about 5 minutes until creamy. Add remaining sugar, extracts, and liqueur, combining well. Combine with risen yeast-flour mixture and beat well.
4. Add remaining flour and beat vigorously (10 minutes with a wooden spoon, 7 minutes with paddle attachment). Add butter and beat for another (10 or 7) minutes. Stir in zest, almonds, and raisins. Dough is supposed to be very sticky and wet!
5. Scrape down sides, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Punch down dough and allow to rise until doubled again.
6. Grease a 10- or 12-inch bundt pan (10 inch pan is fine, but the bottom with rise a bit). Punch down dough and transfer it into the pan using wet hands. Cover again and allow to rise until it fills the pan (about 45 minutes).
7. Heat oven to 350F. Bake for 50 minutes (or 40 minutes in a convection oven). Cake will be browned.
8. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Flip onto a rack to finish cooling.
9. Combine glaze ingredients. When babka is cooled, drizzle glaze evenly around the whole cake.
Notes
Cakes freeze well. Freeze before icing. I hear that Babcia usually made loaves rather than a bundt cake, I remembered it this way for some reason! I’m sure it will turn out well in two loaf pans, but the cooking time will be different.